Horses
We see many Horses throughout the Dark Parables games. Most of them are ours. Most of them are seen running away from us, off into the wilderness, never to be seen again. Or perhaps they gather somewhere in the forest, banding together and forming a society of The Detective's Former Steeds, and we will see a game devoted to these brave pioneers sometime in the future. Or not. Probably not. But here they all are, in their equine glory, usually pictured from the backside as they run away from us. Rise of the Snow Queen: Noah's White Steed We start off with the first horse encountered in the series - and one of the few who, you know, stays put and obeys commands. Naturally, these last two traits guarantee the horse isn't ours, ''sadly enough. No, this horse belongs to the mountain guide, Noah. It bravely brings us to the edge of the Snowfall Kingdom and, though frightened at times, remains there to bring the captured children to safety. Even blowing up a huge rock blocking our path doesn't make him run off. Look at how well behaved he is! The Red Riding Hood Sisters: A Horse of the Same Color This is our very own horse - the first we see in the series. Why, it looks very similar to Noah's horse, so surely it will be as dependable and steadfast. Or... maybe there's more to training a horse than looks. Although we can't really blame this horse for running off after our carriage is attacked by a vicious Mist Wolf. The attack must have severed the reins holding him to the carriage, because he doesn't seem to be dragged off the cliff with us. Lucky for him, though we can only hope he made it to safety afterwards. The Final Cinderella: A Magical Equine It's not really fair to say this horse belongs to us. It's a magical horse that appears as soon as we wave the Magic Glass Wand at the enchanted Pumpkin Carriage outside of Hilltop Mansion. It's a beautiful, ethereal being, with a golden glow. After carrying the Carriage to the Mirror World safely, the horse presumably disappears as readily as it appeared in the first place. So even while this horse may not technically be ours, it sort of shares the same spirit as all of our other horses - disappearing entirely as soon as it gets us where we're going ''(or near it, at least). Jack and the Sky Kingdom: Brave, But Not So Loyal This horse seems steady and brave enough, considering it maintains its course even with huge flaming chunks of the Sky Kingdom crashing down to the ground around it. However, when one of those chunks falls almost right on top of us, we get thrown from our carriage and black out. When we come to, our carriage is smashed to bits and our horse is nowhere to be seen. Presumably, it got to its feet and ran off while we were sleeping. While this isn't really the most loyal of actions, we can't really blame it for making a speedy getaway - especially with Leonard glaring at it while we're out cold. Ballad of Rapunzel: Maybe if We Ride It... Well, you can't accuse us of not trying to keep our horses with us. After losing two of them to carriage mishaps, we obviously decided a more direct approach was needed. Thus, for our ride to Floralia, we decided to ride the horse directly, forgoing a carriage entirely. Surely, if we're ON the horse, then it can't be separated from us, right? Well, not quite. As soon as our horse encounters the poisonous pollen emanating from Floralia, it rears wildly, bucking us off and galloping away. Oh well. Queen of Sands: Probably Took the Cart with It You can tell by how well we attached the horse to the cart that we're trying really hard to keep our horse with us this time. Really hard. Look at the straps and buckles and everything! Surely, he won't run off this time. And, to be fair, we don't actually see this horse run away... but we can only guess he did. After all, the cart we were riding in seems to have disappeared entirely after we're attacked by a giant Nightmare Tree at the entrance to Montafleur. Apparently, connecting our horse to the cart with extra care doesn't guarantee the horse stays - it only guarantees the cart goes, too. Goldilocks and the Fallen Star: A Lucky Escape Well, it's strapped to a nice sturdy cart, with a nice sturdy halter, and it looks like a nice, sturdy, dependable breed of horse. And really, we're overdue some equine luck, and surely we've got this down now because honestly, sixth time's the charm right? Right? Well, no. Not really. In fact this horse is the luckiest of the lot! After getting attacked by giant Silver Stag, the cart goes over a cliff and nearly takes the horse with it! And there's not enough of the cart to make matchsticks with. Maybe next time we should use a bicycle instead... Fabled Legends: An Honorable Mention Some Dark Parables fans theorize that the Fabled Inspector is actually the Fairytale Detective in an earlier time. However, the Inspector's horse survives the trip to Hamelin and is safely tethered at the entrance of the town throughout the entire game. This is great news for the Fabled Inspector, as they obviously have a loyal, dependable steed... but bad news for the theory of the two characters being one and the same. Fabled Inspector: 1/1 with horses. Fairytale Detective: 0/6 with horses. Cursery: A Wee Role We barely see the horse drawing the carriage in Cursery: The Crooked Man and the Crooked Cat, but we do see it briefly - which is more than we can say for it once the Crooked Cat attacks us and capsizes the cart. It seems to have taken a page from the Fairytale Detective's horses' playbooks and hightailed it right on out of there. Not that we can blame it entirely. After playing through Cursery's bonus game, we can't really blame any creature for wanting to get as far away from the area as possible. It probably caught one glimpse of Humpty Dumpty and just "Noped" right out of the entire game. Trivia * According to the police hierarchy, an Inspector could be ranked higher than a mere Detective. Perhaps that is why the Inspector's horse is so loyal and didn't run off...maybe the Fairytale Detective needs to level up. Category:Fun Category:Bestiary